The Boy that Sometimes Lived Next Door
by msspicyjalapeno
Summary: Kylie Stewart didn't mind her simple life or the fact that her best friend was Ray, a 30 year old man while she was only 16. Her life was regular and predictable, but she was fine with it. Hell, she even had a crush on her best friend's son, Robbie. Little does she know that her life is going to be turned upside down thanks to an alien invasion. (BASED ON THE 2005 MOVIE). RobbiexOC
1. Chapter 1

**My OC looks like** **Aly Michalka, but with brown hair.**

 **Let me know what you think and check out my other stories!**

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I strolled to my house leisurely in the early hours of the morning. Today was a school holiday, but I had stayed at a friend's house the night before to avoid going home. When school was usually in session, I would walk home, always ending up arriving at my house hours after school was over, but I didn't really mind. My dad was an asshole. He wasn't physically abusive or anything, but he was definitely verbally abusive. We tended to avoid each other most of the time. He worked the graveyard shift at work, meaning that since I walked home from school, he was leaving an hour or two after I arrived. During those hours I would clean the house, or chill at one of my two favorite neighbors houses. Vincent was only three years older than me. He dropped out of high school at 15. Now at 19, he worked odd jobs to help bring money in for him and his younger siblings. I'd lived in the same house for as long as I can remember, and I remember the moment that my favorite neighbor moved in.

I remember at 7 years old I was excited that Ray Ferrier was here, because he had a son that was my age, and a daughter not too much younger, though she was still an infant at the time. He was recently divorced which meant that his kids weren't there all the time, but when they did come over, we always had a blast. I kept in touch with them through texting, emails, and phone calls when they weren't at Ray's. Ray was still a pretty cool dude. Once he realized that I was being left home at nights while my father was on his shifts, he had me come over to chill while I did homework and passed the time by. We were strangely close. He was the cool Uncle I always wanted as a child. I smiled at the thought as I strolled down the street, pausing when I heard a familiar engine and a car honk.

"Kylie! Want a lift?" Ray asked. I nodded, jogging to the passenger side of the car. Ray wasn't old yet, but he was definitely late 30's. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a rather short frame. He was strong from the sports and odd jobs he did, but he had a kind smile and a twinkle in his eye whenever he got excited about something.

"Thank goodness you showed up. I thought I was going to have to walk the whole way home!" I replied. Ray chuckled at me.

"And heaven forbid you have to do exercise." I nodded in agreement even though I knew he was teasing me.

"When do your kids get here?" I asked excitedly. Ray's face beamed at the mention of his kids, bringing a smile to his face that really only his kids could do.

"They're actually there right now." Ray told me.

"You got the times mixed up, didn't you?" I asked. Ray sent me a sly grin as he adjusted his New York Yankee's ball cap.

"You know me so well." He glanced at my hat. "I thought I told you not to wear that trash in my car." He smiled so I knew that he was kidding. My hat was a worn down Atlanta Braves cap. It was my mom's favorite team and use to be her ball cap. It hid my shoulder blade length chocolate brown hair underneath it since it was up in a bun.

"Don't worry. We're almost home and then I won't be tainting your precious Camaro." I sassed. Ray squinted as he looked at me, causing me to chuckle. "I'll give you an hour or so before I come over to hang out. Is that good?" Ray nodded in agreement. We cut off a car as we took a left turn, skidding and driving way too fast before Ray pulled in to park. Marry and her husband stood outside their car as they waited for Ray. I hadn't seen Robbie or Rachel in two years. I had always had a crush on Robbie, but it was never really returned. We both got out of the car. Ray casually grabbed the trashcan as he took it to the road.

"8:30? Did we say that?" He asked innocently. I trailed behind him more slowly.

"We said 8:00." Marry smiled at me. "Kylie Stewart. How are you doing sweet heart?" I always loved that she remembered my name, even though she never lived next door to me. I guess I should have remembered her husbands…Marry had shoulder blade length strawberry blonde hair. She had a gentle face, soft, warming smile and kind pale green eyes. Everything about her screamed motherly. Her being a few months pregnant only added to the look.

"Pretty good. It's good to see you again." I smiled back, shuffling my green converses nervously. Talking to people that I didn't normally talk to always makes me shy. Ray chose to ignore the conversation as he checked out their car.

"Hey, this is one safe-looking vehicle you got yourself here, Tim." Oh, so that's what his name was. "Congratulations." Oh Ray. You're so awkward.

"Thank you." Tim mumbled staying completely calm throughout the awkward exchange. There were a few beats of silence before my front porch door swung open, banging against the wall and catching everyone's attention.

"Kylie. Damn it girl! I thought I told you to come straight home! There are dishes that need to be done. And who the hell is suppose to make me breakfast." My father yelled at me. I mumbled a goodbye as I turned around, keeping my head down as I walked quickly to my house.

"It would probably be too much of a stretch for, I don't know, the adult of the house to do it, now wouldn't it?" Ray yelled sarcastically. I smiled, glad that I had someone who was standing up for me.

"Mind your own business, Ferrier!" My father yelled back, shoving me the rest of the way into the house. "What are you doing out there with that older man again? You whoring yourself around?" I scrunched up my face in confusion, glancing down at myself. I wore blue jeans that hugged my long legs, but weren't tight enough to be skinny jeans. I had on a plain blue V-neck t-shirt that didn't even go low enough to show cleavage, and I had a black hoodie over the shirt. How was that even remotely slutty? I didn't answer and moved straight to the kitchen instead. Best to just get the chores over with and ignore him as he goes on his usual tirade. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out to see it was a message from Robbie.

 **From: Robbie**

 **Come save me. I'm bored already.**

I chuckled before sending a text.

 **To: Robbie**

 **I can't. I have some chores I have to do. Go bond with your father. I'll be over as soon as I can.**

I didn't have to wait but a few seconds for the reply.

 **From: Robbie**

 **That sounds like a terrible idea. I don't have anything in common with the man. I'd rather hang out with you.**

I knew he didn't mean it that way, but my heart still did little flip-flops when he would say things like that.

 **To: Robbie**

 **Just shut up and go throw a baseball with your father or something.**

I rummaged through the fridge, trying to decide what to make for breakfast, but was distracted by my phone again.

 **From: Robbie**

 **You're evil.**

I laughed out loud before quickly smothering it as my father told me to shut the hell up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Now that I know someone is reading the story, here is the next chapter!**

 **Thanks for the follow!**

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"The Ukraine, a country of some 52 million people, is in almost total blackness tonight in the wake of freakish lightning storms of catastrophic proportion, which struck the country at approximately 4am local time." I heard the news station say as I washed the dishes.

"Why is this trash on?" Dad ground out. "Who cares about what's going on over in that stupid Asian country!"

"Ukraine is Europe." I spoke up as he changed the channel. Dad scratched his head for a minute.

"Really?" I nodded in response while I put away the last of the dishes. "Well…don't correct your father. And besides…who cares? Still don't need to know about them." I hummed in false agreement, trying to keep the peace. I held in a groan as he changed the channel to _King of the Hill_. I couldn't stand that show. The characters were just too stupid and whiny. My head turned as I heard the sound of a baseball being thrown. I glanced out the window to see Ray and Robbie throwing the ball back and forth. "Don't just stand around like the useless bitch you are! Clean my house. I've been working hard. Now toss me a beer." I quickly brought my father a beer and grabbed the clothesbasket to bring in the clothes hanging from the clothesline.

"Mom, says you got a report due on Monday, so you can do that when we're done here." Ray told Robbie as he tossed the ball.

"Yeah, I'm almost finished. I just gotta type it up." Robbie lied easily. I glanced at the pair as they spoke back and forth.

"Yeah, bullshit." Ray called him out. Robbie paused for a second.

"Yeah? What do you know, Ray?" Robbie asked cockily. What is up with him calling him Ray? Sure his parents got a divorce, but his dad loved him and was trying. What more did he want?

"Everything. Haven't you heard? Between me and my brother, we know everything." Ray quipped. I snorted. Feeling eyes on me, I turned to look over my shoulder. Robbie was watching me gather my clothes. As we made eye contact, I smiled. He smirked in response. "Heads up!" Robbie's head snapped over just in time for him to see the ball coming to his face and catch it. "Distracted or something?" Ray teased him, causing me to blush.

"What's the capital of Australia?" Rachel asked from her seat in the lawn chair. Ray caught Robbie's throw with ease.

"That's one my brother knows." Ray responded. I chuckled under my breathe.

"If it's ok with you, I'll just laugh the first 500 times you tell that one." Robbie quipped. Okay, he had a point there. Even I had heard that one a couple of times.

"Just do your report. We don't send you to school so you can flunk out." Ray told him. Look at him, being all responsible dad on us.

"You don't pay for it, Tim does." Robbie calmly told him. My head snapped over to their lawn. Ok, that was just under the belt. I looked to Ray to see how he would respond. I recognized the wind up for his fastball easily, being on the receiving end of it multiple times. Robbie winced as he caught the ball.

"That's half what I've got." Ray told him. I chuckled recognizing that as the way that Ray would punish people. It was how he would tell me if I was getting too bitchy or mouthy without actually saying anything.

"You're an asshole. I hate coming here." Robbie told him, winding up and throwing it as hard as he could. It still wasn't as hard as Ray's.

"That why you act like such a dick?" Ray asked. I chuckled at the statement. I caught Robbie's eye as he glanced over at me. Ray threw the ball back, but Robbie quickly moved his hand, causing the ball instead to go through the window. My jaw dropped as I stared at the broken window. Robbie flipped his hat back around, showing off the Red Sox baseball cap as he walked inside. We all stayed quiet as we stared at each other. "What?"

"That's not how you're gonna get through to him. If you want him to listen, you…" Rachel started to help him, but Ray cut her off.

"What are you, your mother or mine?" Ray told her off, starting to walk inside.

"You should listen to her." I called out as I walked up the stairs to my own house.

"Last time I checked you weren't my mother either." Ray called after me. I flipped him off over my head.

"I'll bring you over some dinner later tonight." I called out as the door closed. I thanked everything above as I heard the loud snores coming from the living room. I quickly folded the laundry and put it away. My next task was to clean up the trash that covered the living room. Right as I finished there was a soft knock on the door. Dad's snores stuttered, but continued strong. I ran quietly to the door, hoping to catch it before the person woke my father. I opened it to see Robbie standing in front of me. His dark brown hair was longer, coming below his ears. He smiled at me, a rare smile that actually reached his chocolate brown eyes which made them melt. I swooned internally. He pulled me into a tight hug.

"Hey, Ky. I missed ya." Robbie muttered into the top of my head. With my ear against his chest, I could hear the rumble of his now deep voice.

"Missed you too, Robbie. What are you doing over here?" I asked, glancing back to make sure that my father still slept. Robbie held up the keys to Ray's car in my face. "No."

"Oh, come on. I'll take the fall. He's taking a nap. We'll be back before he wakes up. I promise!" I chewed on my lip. Robbie shot me pleading eyes, slowly grabbing my hand as he began to pull me out. I let him pull me out, slowly closing the door behind me.

"Just for an hour. No longer. I need to get back before my dad wakes up too." Robbie just pulled me quicker to the car. Nerves and energy bubbled through me as Robbie cranked the car and we pealed out of the parking spot. Robbie sped down the road, rolling the windows down as he did so. "So where are you taking me?"

"We are going to use up Ray's gas and then get some ice cream." Robbie answered, smirking at me as we road aimlessly around town.

"Why'd you start calling him that?" I asked. Robbie's smile fell as he rounded the corner.

"He doesn't even try to be my dad, so why should I call him that." Robbie answered coldly.

"What about playing ball earlier? Wasn't that trying?" I asked fiddling with the radio.

"Nope. That was half-assed. That's all he ever has given me and all he ever will." Robbie answered.

"Well that's thoroughly depressing." Robbie let out a dry chuckle. I glanced out the windows. "Whoa! Would you look at those storm clouds?" We stopped at the red light to stare at them out the window.

"They sure came in quick." Robbie commented, leaning forward to look out the windshield better. The sound of wind whipping around the car grew loud. The clouds lite up with lightening as we started to drive again. "You think this is one of those lightening storms that's been going on in Europe?"

"Maybe, so far none has –" A lightening struck down a few cars in front of us. I screamed as Robbie cursed, swerving to miss the guy that slammed on brakes. I quickly jumped out of the car, meeting Robbie halfway around it.

"You ok?" He asked, glancing me over, but was distracted by the lightening. I mumbled a yes as I gripped onto him tightly, also watching the lightening.

"How is it hitting in the same place?" I asked. Robbie didn't answered. I heard him and the guy next to us counting how many strikes happened. "The wind stopped." I mumbled, jumping as a particularly large bolt of lightening struck. The lightening was leaving a large hole in the ground. "There's not even thunder. We should be deaf by now." It finally stopped.

"We need to get back. I gotta check on Rachel." Robbie said. I nodded as we got back in the car and tried to crank it. It didn't work.

"Guess we should start running. There's no way my dad slept through that." Robbie nodded as we jumped out. People were starting to run, panicking, which meant I was running into people. Someone rammed into me particularly hard, causing me to lose my balance. Strong arms caught me as I began to fall. Robbie wrapped his arm around my waist and used his broad shoulders to elbow his way through the crowd. We ran quickly down the road, back to our houses. We finally came up on our road and slowed to a walk. We caught sight of Ray as he walked out into the street, looking around at all the other cars that weren't starting either. As soon as Ray spotted us, all three of us ran toward each other.

"The car just stopped." Robbie immediately started explaining what had happened.

"You're ok? Are you ok?" Ray asked, not even caring about his car for once.

"The lightning started to hit about a block away, over and over again." Robbie seemed to be almost in shock. Ray continued to ask him if he was all right. He looked to me. I nodded as I still clung to Robbie, whose arm was still wrapped around my waist.

"And me and this guy…" Robbie started to say, but finally stopped when Ray yanked on his hat.

"Where did you go?" Ray demanded, starting to sound angry about us leaving.

"Over on Lincoln Avenue." Robbie answered, looking around at all the stopped cars.

"Lincoln Avenue?" Ray questioned us. I nodded in response.

"By the church." I clarified.

"Did you see it? You guys saw the lightning? Were you near it?" Ray asked us. I nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, 26 times we counted! Over and over again. The lightning opened up this hole or something." Robbie told him.

"You're ok? You're both ok?" Ray asked again.

"Yeah." Robbie finally answered the question.

"Good. Your sister is in the house. I want you to go in that house and I want you to stay with her. Ok?" Ray put Robbie's hat back on his head before he began walking away, over to the area where we had just come from. "The next time you take my car with no driver's license and no permission, I call the cops. Goes for both of you." Ray yelled at us. "You better be there when I get back." Robbie and I stared at Ray's back for a minute, stunned at Ray's stern father voice. Ray turned around, springing us into movement. I ran to my own house, finally separating myself from Robbie's side.

"Come find me if you learn something, yeah?" I called over to him as we both raced up the steps.

"You got it." Robbie called back. I walked inside to find that my father had miraculously slept through the whole ordeal. I guess there really was no noise.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the 2 follow's and favorite's! Hope you like the next chapter! Sorry it took so long to get up! This past week or so has been crazy!**

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"Why have you not cleaned the living room yet? Do you think I work hard all night so you can lounge around and whore yourself out? No! I don't you ungrateful little slut! Did you mess with the TV while I was sleeping? Why the hell wont it turn on?" I sighed loudly, picking up all the trash from the floor as my father yelled at me. The knock at the door caused a brief pause in his yelling. "Ferrier? What the hell do you want?" My head shot up. Never once had Ray come over to my house before. I abandoned the trash and walked to the front door. Ray stood there with Robbie and Rachel. Ray looked panicked; relief slightly crossed his face when he saw me behind my father's brooding shoulder.

"Is that your duffle?" Ray asked as he looked down at my duffle bag that I had yet to unload from spending the night at a friend's house. Without waiting for a reply Ray snatched it up. "Kylie, you need to come with me now."

"What the hell are you doing Ferrier? She's not going anywhere with you! She has chores she has to do." My father snapped at him. Before I could even process what was happening, Ray had punched my father in the nose, causing said man to stumble backward. I stared at my father with wide eyes, but was pulled from my trance as someone grabbed my hand and began pulling me down the stairs. I turned around to see Ray pulling Rachel and I along, Robbie following quickly behind us. Ray handed me my duffle, which I slung over my shoulder.

"What's happening?" Robbie asked. I could hear my father shouting in the distance behind us.

"I can't tell you now. We've only got about another minute." Ray told us. Ray let go of my hand to grab Rachel's suitcase. I turned to see my father starting to come after us, still yelling. "Ignore him and keep walking." What the hell was going on? I shared a confused glance with Robbie but did as Ray said. We crossed the street, which had panicked people covered in some sort of ash running down it. "Please. Please." I heard Ray chant under his breath as we walked up to the mechanic's shop.

"Ray, I'm standing right beside you. Can you please answer me?" Robbie asked as we circled someone's minivan.

"Just get in the front seat, Robbie." Ray answered. He slid open the side door, motioning for Rachel and I to get in.

"Whose car is this?" Rachel asked, panic clear in her voice.

"Just get in." Ray mumbled. Oh my God, we are going to get in so much trouble for stealing this car and Ray might get kidnapping charges. I jumped in to sit right beside Rachel.

"Whose car is this?" Rachel asked again. Ray just threw her suitcase in the back and shut the door. I looked to the front window to see that my father was about to cross the street to us.

"Hey! Hey, Ray!" Manny called out. "You were absolutely right. I had to change the sole…" He paused as Ray ignored him and got in the front seat of the car. Manny walked over to the passenger side of the car. "What? Come on, open up. Open the door, come on! Open the door, Ray!" Robbie turned to Ray, looking to see what he wanted him to do. Ray reached over and opened it for Manny.

"Get in, Manny." Ray told him.

"That's funny. You gotta get out of the car. You can't take it." Manny said, starting to get worked up.

"Manny, listen to me, pal." Ray tried to get his attention. My father was in the parking lot, walking over to the side of the car with Manny.

"He's got the kids. Daddy's acting crazy." Manny spoke to Robbie, Rachel, and I, trying to get us to leave.

"Manny, shut up! I don't have time to explain…" Ray tried to reason with him again. My father had just walked up and banged on the window beside me.

"Get out of the car!" He yelled. I had never seen my father this furious before. Blood trickled down his nose from where Ray had punched him.

"You're busting my chops. I got a shop to run." Manny ignored my father as he tried to get Ray out of the car.

"Get in, or you're gonna die!" Ray deadpanned. Even my father stopped in his yelling to look at Ray like he was crazy. Rachel started crying as she grabbed onto my arm. I quickly wrapped her up in a tight embrace.

"All right, get out of the truck! I'm not kidding now." Manny said in a slightly raised voice. A noise behind us caused Rachel and I to turn our heads. Some type of ray was shooting through things, setting stuff on fire and disintegrating everything.

"Oh my God. Oh my God." I chanted in panic. Robbie slammed his door closed right as Ray took off driving. I watched as the ray hit Manny and my father, turning them both to dust.

"Get down! Get down!" Ray yelled at us. I quickly brought Rachel down into my lap, covering her head and upper torso with my own body.

"Is it the terrorists?" Rachel asked in panic. There was no way that was terrorist. No one on this planet had that kind of technology…did they?

"Just get down!" Ray yanked Robbie down as Robbie let out a curse word. We stayed down as Ray swerved the vehicle around obstacles. Loud banging noises made me peak my head up a little. Chunks of rock and wood were flying everywhere. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see the bridge be blown apart as well as my house. I quickly ducked back down as explosions and fire started up. After it was quiet for a minute, I glanced back up. We were clear of the rays. Ray sped the car onto the interstate, honking his horn at all of the people as he swerved around the stopped cars.

"Where are we going?" Robbie yelled. Rachel clung to me tightly as I wrapped my arms around her on instinct.

"We gotta go. We got the only working car around here. I'm not stopping until we're clear." Ray rambled.

"Clear of what? What the hell is going on?" Robbie yelled out as he tried to get Ray to explain more to him.

"You saw! We're under attack!" Ray yelled back. I could feel myself started to hyperventilate, but noticed that Rachel was freaking out more.

"By who? Who is attacking us?" Robbie yelled back right as Rachel lost it and started just screaming and crying. I shushed her, trying to help her calm down but it wasn't working.

"Rachel, you've got to keep it down." Ray told her, but she wasn't having any of it and continued to scream and cry. "Shut up, Rachel! I can't think!" Ray yelled at her.

"Stop it, Ray!" I yelled back as I continued to try and sooth her. Yelling at her was not going to help her calm down.

"You're freaking her out!" Robbie yelled at him, sticking up for his little sister. Rachel let out a particularly high-pitched scream.

"Look, I'm driving! One of you do something!" Ray yelled at Robbie and I. Robbie sat down the box in his lap and turned around to face us. He folded his arms one over the other.

"Ok, put 'em up, Rach. Make the arms. This space right here, this is yours. This belongs to you, right?" Robbie asked softly.

"Yes." Rachel whispered as she copied the arm movements, slowly calming down.

"You're safe in your space." Robbie told her softly as he held her arms. My heart melted a little at how sweetly he was talking to her.

"I'm safe in my space." Rachel repeated as she took deep breaths. Her hand grabbed onto Robbie's while the other one clutched my own.

"There's nothing that can happen to you." Robbie told her, still holding her tightly and talking quietly.

"I'm really scared." Rachel admitted as she squeezed my hand.

"I'm gonna go to the front seat, talk to Dad. I'll be two feet away." Robbie told her, never letting go of her hand. "Alright, you gonna be ok?"

"Yes" She panted now, calming down a little. She let go of my hand and scooted over so that Robbie could lean to the front seat to talk to Ray. I ducked my head underneath Robbie's arm so I could listen better too.

"I wanna know everything you know." Robbie told him. Ray glanced at the both of us while he looked focused on driving.

"This thing, this machine, it crawled out of the ground, started torching everything. It was killing everybody." Ray told us.

"What is it? Is it terrorists?" Robbie asked. If this were terrorist and they had this kind of weaponry, why would they have not used it against us already.

"No, this came form someplace else." Ray told us. Like some other country is doing this…Russia maybe?

"What do you mean, like, Europe?" Robbie asked in confusion. Ray seemed to be on a tight fuse.

"No, Robbie, not like Europe!" Ray snapped, obviously a little tense that we weren't getting it. "That machine, it was already buried. Maybe it came down in the lightning storm. And they came down…"

"What do you mean, 'came down'? You just said it was buried." Robbie asked as I looked at Ray curiously. Was he thinking what I think he was thinking?

"No, the machine I'm talking about was buried, but what came down in the lightning storm, what operates it, that's the, uh, you know?" Robbie climbed back into the front seat as Ray talked.

"Aliens…" I whispered, barely audible. Ray sent me a panicked look and nodded in agreement.

"That's the what?" Rachel asked from beside me. Ray didn't answer her. Robbie glanced out of the front windshield.

"Why aren't there any helicopters or airplanes?" Robbie thought out loud. He may not like to admit it, but him and Ray were a lot a like.

"Hey Rach, how you doing there? How's she doing?" Ray asked her. She seemed fine to me. Robbie glanced back at us.

"How ya doing?" He asked. She nodded back to him. "She's good." Not sure why Ray felt like he needed a translator to speak to his own daughter.

"What was that thing you did with her?" Ray asked Robbie.

"Works sometimes. She gets claustrophobic." Robbie told him. Goodness, was there anything that wasn't wrong with this poor girl.

"I want Mom." Rachel told Ray, starting to sound a little panicked again.

"I know. You feel better?" Ray asked in false cheerfulness.

"I want Mom." Rachel repeated.

"Yeah, tell me about it, you know?" Ray continued to use the false cheerful voice.

"Take me to Mom's." Rachel demanded. Ok, she's about to lose it again.

"Ok, what I just need you to do is to hold it together for me, ok?" Ray asked her with his cheerful voice.

"I want Mom!" Rachel screamed at him, her finger nails digging into my hand as she gripped it tightly.

"When you scream like that, I can't really drive…" Ray told her, his nerves starting to leak into his voice.

"Take me to Mom's!" Rachel screamed loudly. Robbie moved to the back seat with us, making it a little crowded.

"That's where we're going right now. They probably turned around!" Ray tried to explain to her. I switched to the front seat, letting my back lean against the closed door as I faced Ray.

"Take me to Mom's!" Rachel screamed again as Robbie hugged her tightly to himself.

"I know!" He yelled back at her. There were a few moments of silence, only broken by Robbie murmuring words of comfort to Rachel. All of this started to sink in. Aliens were attacking us. Aliens destroyed my home. Aliens killed… "What?" Ray asked me as he looked at my still form. His eyes were silently pleading for me not to lose it like Rachel was.

"My dad's dead." I stated. The words felt strange on my mouth. A tiny bit of heartache struck me, but I shed no tears for the man. Ray gave me a sympathy pat on my leg. We stayed quiet after that as we drove towards Marry's house.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for all the follows and favorites! You guys are awesome.**

 **Sorry for the later update. I really have no excuse for not doing it...**

 **Hope you like the chapter!**

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It was dusk now as we drove through the fancy neighborhood. I lounged in the very back seat, while Rachel bounced impatiently by the door in the middle.

"Hurry up, Dad. Come on." Rachel rushed. The area looked like it hadn't been touched at all by the aliens. "Robbie, get the door." Robbie was already getting out before the car had even stopped. Robbie opened the door, getting plowed over by Rachel as she dragged him to the front door of the house, screaming for their mother. Ray and I sat in the car for a second, watching them as they ran in.

"Big house." I commented. Ray didn't answer as he grabbed the box and got out of the van. I followed his lead, grabbing my bag and Rachel's as I jumped out. Ray and I entered the house, listening as Robbie and Rachel screamed for Merry and Tim.

"They're gone." Robbie told us, coming to a stop as I dropped mine and Rachel's bag.

"Is she dead?" Rachel asked worriedly, rubbing the railing of the stairs as she waited for an answer.

"She's not dead. All right? She's just not here. Ok? They were never here." Ray told them, beginning a walk toward the back of the house.

"How do you know?" Robbie asked. We followed Ray on his walk, to what I was assuming was going to be a kitchen.

"Because they're on they're way to Boston, and so they just kept on going. They're probably at your grandma's house by now." Ray told them.

"I'm gonna call her." Robbie said as he dialed the number. Rachel and I hopped up on the bar stools at the counter.

"How come the lights are on here and not at your place?" Rachel asked.

"Because nothing bad happened here. So we're safe here. All right?" Ray said as he put the box on the island. He put his arm up in a bad mimic of Robbie's arms from earlier. "Ok, Rachel? This is your area. Ok, you are safe –"

"Dad, that's not how it goes." Rachel told him, trying to save him from embarrassment. Jeez, she could have just let him think that it worked.

"Ok, well, are you hungry? I'll get you some food. I'm gonna feed you. Get something to eat. What do we have here?" Ray began pulling out different condiments from the box he brought.

"Busy signal. One of those fast ones. You think all the circuits are down?" Robbie asked, but Ray ignored him as he continued going over the condiments in his box.

"This is really good, Robbie. Vinaigrette. I said, pack food. What the hell is this?" Ray asked slightly pissed off.

"That's all that was in your kitchen." Robbie answered, giving up trying to talk to Ray as he came to sit next to me. Ray let out a sigh.

"Ok. No, it's all right. It's all right." Ray spoke a loud, but it felt more like he was speaking to himself. He grabbed a jar of expired peanut butter from his box. "Food. Bread. Ok. We're gonna have…we'll just make some sandwiches." Ray emptied the loaf of bread. "Wanna see me deal? Here we go. There's two for you, there's two for Kylie, two for Robbie, two for me, one for the house." Ray laughed at his own joke as he dealt out the bread. He grabbed a spoon as he began spreading out the peanut butter, which fell out more liquid than solid. Wasn't one of his kids allergic to peanuts? "Maybe after we eat, I'll go down and show you guys…teach you how to play poker? Five-card stud? Maybe a little blackjack." He listed nervously.

"I'm allergic to peanut butter." Rachel told him. There it was. Ray scoffed at her.

"Since when?" He asked in disbelief.

"Birth." She deadpanned. Ray looked to Robbie. I turned to my other side to see he was wearing an amused smile as he nodded in agreeance with Rachel.

"Ok, well, here. Here, you can eat the bread. Ok?" Ray told her as he handed her two plain slices.

"I'm not hungry." Rachel told him. Ray continued to put the peanut butter on the sandwiches.

"Ok, well, Robbie, Kylie, and I are gonna be eating peanut butter sandwiches. Want jelly on this sandwich?" He asked us.

"I'm not hungry either." Robbie told him. Ray seemed fidgety and on edge. It was starting to worry me.

"You're not hungry either?" Robbie shook his head. "Well, more for me and Kylie." Ray continued to make the sandwich.

"Isn't that peanut butter expired?" I asked softly. Ray glanced at the bottle before sighing loudly as he dropped it. "I mean…I'll still eat it if you…" Ray angrily grabbed the bread, turning and throwing it in the sink and the slice with peanut butter against the window. We watched him as he stared out the kitchen window.

"Everybody just relax, ok? Because we're here now. We're safe, and we're gonna stay. In the morning, your mom and Tim are gonna be here and everything's gonna be fine. Ok?" Ray told us, still sounding like he was talking to himself.

"What about me? What should I do? I don't have any other relatives? Should I be going to the police station or whatever?" I asked.

"I don't know Kylie! Just be your own adult and decide for yourself." Ray snapped at me. I jumped in my seat. Ray had never yelled at me before. I quickly masked my hurt look and fell back into sync as if I were at home with Dad.

"Yes, sir." I mumbled in a quiet voice. Ray sighed loudly, knowing I only ever talked like that to my dad. I felt like I needed to ask permission to leave the bar, but he told me to be my own adult. I quickly stood up, leaving the room to grab my duffle. I cleared the bag of its content except for my toiletries. I searched the houses bathrooms for things that we might need. I jumped when I turned around and found Robbie there.

"What are you doing?" Robbie asked looking at me like I had grown another head.

"I don't think everything will be fine. I'm pessimistic. So I'm being paranoid and preparing for the worst. If it so happens that I'm wrong, I'll put everything back. I promise." I told him. He nodded before motioning for me to follow him. He took me to the hall closet up the stairs. There were flashlights, batteries, candles, and lighters. He helped me stuff them in the bag.

"You can stay with us." Robbie spoke up as we emptied the items into the bag. I raised an eyebrow. "Stay with us as we go through all this. Then when it's over, you can stay with us for as long as you want to." He pointedly didn't look at me as we continued to load the bag. We zipped up the bag, Robbie throwing it over his shoulder.

"Thanks." I said, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. Robbie squeezed it back, continuing to hold my hand as we made our way down the stairs. "Where are we going?"

"Ray wants us to sleep in the basement, just in case." He answered. I could practically hear him rolling his eyes. Robbie and I grabbed some blankets from the couch before he led me to the top of the basement stairs that Ray and Rachel were already going down.

"If everything's fine, why do we have to sleep in the basement?" Rachel asked. "We've got perfectly good beds."

"It's like a slumber party." Ray responded to her. The basement surprisingly enough was furnished. I guess that really shouldn't have been surprising with the size of the house.

"What are you afraid is gonna happen?" Robbie asked. I looked down at our hands, which were still holding the other tightly. I blushed slightly.

"Nice basement." Ray commented as he looked at the workout equipment. I began picturing Robbie lifting the weights shirtless, which only served to make me blush harder.

"I wanna sleep in my bed. I got back problems." Rachel told us. How can you be 9 years old and have back problems?

"Ok. You know on the Weather Channel when there's a tornado, and they tell you to go down to the basement for safety? It's like that." Ray told her. Ahh, so he's just as paranoid as me.

"There's gonna be tornadoes?" Rachel asked a little panicked. I snorted as Ray turned around, frustration etched onto his face.

"All right, Rachel. No more talking, ok?" Ray told her, heading over to the couches. Robbie finally let go of my hand as he walked toward Rachel.

"Come with me, Rach." Robbie told her, putting his hat on her head backwards. My heart melted at the gesture.

"Could you be a little nicer to me? God." Rachel commented. I let out a small noise of agreement as I followed Ray over to the chairs. I came around behind him, making a pallet on the floor. Ray grabbed my arm, giving me an apologetic look. I guess we were all under a lot of stress. I shrugged and smiled at him. His eyes relaxed then, letting me go back to making my bed. I watched as Ray pulled a handgun from the back of his pants and put it behind a pillow. Ray caught my eye and held a finger to his lips. I nodded, before crawling under the covers. Robbie came over and sat at the chair by my pallet. The room was unnervingly quiet. I could hear everyone breathing. I grabbed Robbie's pants leg, tugging on it. Robbie leaned over the armchair.

"Do you have a fan or something to make a little noise? It's too quiet." I whispered. A few seconds later the hum of a fan filled the room, making me smile. I could barely make out Robbie's form as it leaned over the armchair again, staring at me. "I bet you planned all of this just to get out of writing that paper." I joked. I heard a snort from above me.

"You caught me." Robbie whispered back. "How is that even comfortable down there?" It really wasn't comfortable, but I wasn't going to complain. I shrugged, even though he couldn't see it. "Come here." He whispered grabbing my arm and making me stand up. He pulled me over the armchair, my butt falling into his lap. He grabbed a blanket from the floor and pulled it over us. His arm wrapped around my back, making sure I didn't fall backward. I hesitantly put my head on his shoulder. He was warm and comfortable. We both let out sighs of content. He smelled like axe body spray, but not enough to choke me.

"Thanks." I breathed, already falling asleep. I felt Robbie's chest rumble as he hummed in acknowledgment. That was the last thing I remember before some tapping started to wake me. I blinked a few times, trying to remember where I was and what the noise was. I turned my head at the same time that Robbie did. Our faces were inches apart, our eyes equally wide. The lights flashed across his face…wait…what? The sound of zaps brought yesterday's events crashing back down on me. Robbie and I jumped up quickly. I stood between him and Ray as we stared out the tiny window. None of us moved, or talked, fear rooting us to the spot.

"Is the lightning back?" Rachel asked from beneath the stairs. This lightning had started to change and was now making noise.

"No, this is something else." Ray spoke quietly. A loud screeching sound from behind us caused us to jump and spin around. I quickly latched onto Ray's arm as Rachel ran out from beneath the stairs and clung to Robbie. The house began to shake, causing things to fall to the floor.

"What's that sound?" Robbie yelled. The noise continued to get louder as the house shook more violently.

"I've never heard that before!" Ray yelled back. The lights were no longer flashing, but were constant now.

"Is it them? Is it them?" Rachel screamed in panic. The sound of explosions caused me to grip Ray harder.

"We gotta go! Where do we go? Robbie, this is your house! Where do we go?" Ray yelled. Robbie turned quickly in panic, trying to think. I didn't even notice as he disappeared from my side. Ray and I continued to look out the window. Robbie appeared out of nowhere, grabbing Ray's arm and pulling us deeper into the basement. "The gun." Ray yelled at me. I let go, running back to the chair and grabbing the gun from where he had stashed it. I ran to the open door as the glass exploded behind me, causing me to scream. Ray grabbed my arm as I neared, yanking me into the small room as he shut the door. Fire exploded behind us, before we shut it out. The room went completely black as Ray held me closely to his chest. His breaths came out in puffs on my hair. I gripped him back fiercely as we waited for the noise to stop. A few seconds after it finally did, we still didn't move.

"Are we still alive?" Rachel whispered, finally breaking the silence. Ray loosened his hold on me, taking the gun from my hands. We felt along the walls until we found Robbie and Rachel.

"Let's just try and sleep. We'll go out in the morning if it's safe." I stayed awake for a while after that, smushed between Robbie and Ray as I listened to everyone's breathing. Finally, sleep took me.


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm so sorry that this took so long to update. I basically celebrated my birthday all week, then had a summer painting job, then saw family for a week and a half, then helped a friend move in. But now I will be back to regular updates!**

 **Thanks for the follows and favorites!**

 **If you read any of my other stories, I just updated my Walking Dead FF and my Teen Wolf one should be updated in a day or two!**

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I squinted as the sunlight blinded my eyes. I buried my head further into the warm, soft pillow that was wrapped around me. I shuffled, causing my pillow to move and groan….wait…I turned my head to see what my pillow was. My eyes opened to see Robbie looking down at me. I blushed, realizing that I was lying on his chest, his arm wrapped around me. We jumped at the sound of Ray coming back into the room…wait…When did he even leave? "Alright, everybody get up. We need to leave now." Ray quickly pulled Rachel up from where she was laying in Robbie's lap. "Look at me." He told her as he pulled on her jacket. "You keep your eyes only on me, you understand? Don't look down. Don't look around me. I'm taking you to the car and you're gonna wanna look around. But you're not going to. Are you?" Ray said in a calm voice. Robbie and I watched him in confusion.

"No." Rachel answered. We watched as Ray scooped up Rachel in his arms so that we could move faster.

"You two hold onto each other." Ray told us. I nodded, taking a hold of Robbie's elbow. We quickly ran up the stairs of the basement, heading to the house. The first thing I noticed was that the house was brighter than it should have been since we left the lights off. Then I saw the rest of the house. There was barely one wall still standing, a piece of a plane sat in their living room. I stopped with Robbie, staring at the carnage that used to be their neighborhood. Anger swept through me. Why were these things doing this to us! How many people died in this crash? I walked numbly with Robbie past the van to stare at the pieces of the plane that were still on fire. I vaguely noticed the car pull up behind us.

"Robbie! Kylie! Get in." Ray yelled. I finally turned around to look. Ray held Rachel in his lap as he waited for us. We stared at each other for a second. "Get in." He said as if we were idiots. Robbie and I walked over. He shut the door behind me before getting in the front with Ray. We stayed quiet for an hour until we were out of all of the carnage. Ray finally let Rachel out of his lap so that she could come to the back with me. We both had our heads stuck between the seats.

"Why the hell aren't we on the turnpike?" Robbie asked as we made a turn to go into more country.

"I don't want people to see we've got a working car. We'll stay along the Hudson till we find a bridge or ferry, then we'll cross the Hudson and we take the back roads across Connecticut, all the way to Boston." Ray told us. I listened with Robbie as he changed the radio stations, attempting to find something, but all we were getting was static.

"Where is everybody?" Rachel asked. The small town we were passing through looked almost post apocalyptic, which I guess it was.

"I don't know. Hiding in their basements, maybe." Ray told her, focusing more on the map than the conversation.

"You know I always figured when something like this would happen that it would be zombies, a virus, or nukes." I mused. Robbie snorted at me.

"Zombies? Really?" He asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

"You don't know the virus' that they were cooking up in the government's laboratories." I answered. Robbie shook his head before turning back to the radio.

"If we had any balls, we'd go back, find on of those things and kill it." Robbie spoke up. I hummed in agreement. I would do it, but not until we had Rachel tucked away somewhere safe with someone to look after her in case we died.

"Yeah, good. Why don't you let me make the big decisions, ok?" Ray told him, finally putting down the map.

"Which would be when? Never, Ray? Never's about your speed." Robbie sassed to him. Rachel turned, trying to make Robbie stop.

"Enough of the 'Ray' shit, all right? It's 'Dad,' 'Sir,' or if you want, 'Mr. Ferrier!' That sounds a little weird to me, but you decide." Ray snapped. Rachel tried to calm her dad down as well, but failed to stop him too. She turned to me.

"Can you please help me make them stop fighting?" Rachel asked me. I shook my head.

"It's better if they get it out of their system. The faster they get it out, the quicker they cool off." I answered. Rachel sighed in response.

"Dad?" Rachel said his name with a little more force than necessary.

"Yes, Rachel?" Ray said in a soft and tired tone.

"I've gotta go to the bathroom." She told him. Well now that she said something so do I.

"Really?" Ray asked, sounding baffled that someone actually had a bodily function.

"Me, too. I'm about to wet myself." I added.

"That's a beautiful mental image." Ray muttered as he began looking for a spot to pull over. Robbie and I shared an amused glance. Ray finally pulled over. We began opening the door.

"Not so fast, not so fast." Ray said, causing all of us to pause. "There's two things we gotta watch out for, and the second is people who might want our car."

"There's nobody around!" Robbie complained as Rachel and I rolled our eyes.

"Yeah. We gotta go." She said, before rushing me out the door to go and pee. We jumped out of the car, Robbie and Rachel running off to find a good spot.

"Should I stand guard by the car, Mr. Ferrier?" I sassed. Ray gave me weirded out look.

"Don't call me that. Stick with Ray." He told me. I laughed before running off to a section of the trees that was between where Rachel and Robbie were headed. "All right, Rachel, Kylie, it's good right there." He told us nervously before we had reached the tree line. I rolled my eyes and continued running.

"We're not going in front of you guys!" Rachel yelled for the both of us.

"All right, then just go where I can see you." Ray told her.

"Are you crazy? Don't look!" I yelled back, reaching the edge of the trees. After a quick check that they couldn't see me, I began my business.

"I'm not gonna look! Just stay in sight!" Ray yelled back. I laughed to myself at that one.

"That's looking!" Rachel yelled back, causing me to laugh even more. I quickly finished, running back to the field. I didn't see Ray by the car anymore, and I noticed Robbie just staring at the river.

"Robbie…are you peeing or being reflective?" I asked. He didn't respond but I could see both of his fists clenched at his side as he stared at the river, showing me that he wasn't peeing. I jogged over, looking in the river as well. I watched in horror as dozens of dead bodies floated past us. My stomach turned. I couldn't stop myself as I turned my head, throwing up on the ground. The sound of cars drew my attention. A small piece of the army was driving by. I turned to talk to Robbie, but he was already running full speed toward them. I quickly followed, ignoring my slightly shaky body that was still recovering from throwing up. Robbie stopped by the edge of the road, yelling at the tanks for him to take him with them. Ray grabbed my arm, stopping me from running up next to him. He sat Rachel down beside me and ran over to Robbie.

"Robbie, you wanna go in that direction? There's nothing living in that direction!" Ray yelled at him.

"What do you care? You never gave a shit before! You never gave a shit!" Robbie yelled back at him.

"Ok, hard-ass, what's your plan? You're in charge now. You tell me what we're doing." Ray sassed at him.

"We catch up with these soldiers, we hook up with whoever else isn't dead, and we get back at them! That's what we do!" Robbie yelled. I couldn't say that I didn't agree with him. Half of me wanted to take vengeance on them. The other half wanted to get as far away as possible and let the army take care of it.

"Now, let's try one that doesn't involve your 10-year-old sister and 16-year-old friend joining the army! You have anything like that?" Ray yelled back.

"Why don't you just tell us the truth? You have no idea which way to go. You wanna come off all wise and shit. You only chose Boston because you hope Mom is there. And if she's there, you can dump us on her! Kylie, too! You can dump us on Mom, and then you'll only have to care about yourself, which is exactly the way you like it!" Robbie yelled back. It seemed like one of those speeches that a kid had been dying to give their father for years. Ray didn't respond, knowing that it was the truth. I felt a piece of me crack inside. All of my family was dead. My only friend and person that I trusted was trying to dump me off with his kids to his ex-wife. The family I was being dumped with probably wouldn't want me. I felt my eyes tear up as Rachel ran over to Robbie.

"Robbie! Where are you trying to go? What are you trying to do? Who's gonna take care of me if you go?" Rachel sobbed. Robbie leaned down, picking her up as he whispered soothing words in her ear. I stood still blinking as fast as I could so I could get rid of my tears. I would just live life day to day. If I got to Boston and Merry took me in, then I would stay. If not, I'ld figure something out then. There was no need to get upset yet. On that solemn note, I walked with Rachel to an area of the bushes away from the river, staying with her as she did her business.

"Mom will let you stay with us, you know that right?" Rachel said softly, giving my hand a little squeeze as we walked together back to the car. I gave her a small smile, squeezing back, but I didn't get my hopes up. We silently got in the car. The awkward silence engulfed us. Ray made eye contact with me in the rear view mirror, but I quickly turned to look out the car window. Robbie went back to searching the radio stations. We finally found an emergency broadcast but it didn't give us any news. Rachel laid her head in my lap. I ran my fingers through her hair as she dozed off. After listening to the same alert message over a dozen times, Ray finally cut it off.

"I closed my eyes, why don't you drive for a bit?" Ray asked. Robbie continued to stare out the window, a bored and pissed off expression no doubt on his face.

"I don't have a license." He responded. Ray didn't even miss a beat before he replied.

"Since when ahs that stopped you?" Ray sassed. Robbie finally looked over to Ray's smirking face. He nodded in agreeance. After they switched, Ray quickly fell asleep. The car stayed silent for a little bit.

"He may not be father of the year, but he didn't have much of a father role model himself to go by. And he could have been much worse." I said softly so I wouldn't wake the other two.

"I have a right to be mad at him." He said, a slight edge to his voice. I nodded in agreement.

"Yes, you do. But hashing out the beef in the middle of an alien invasion isn't really the time and place to do it. He's just trying to get you and Rachel to some place safe. He's not good at coddling or being sensitive, which is why he wants your mother. If you think he will leave you guys once he finds your mom and Tim you're crazy. He will stay there and help protect all of you. He's just as scared as us. He's just trying not to show it. He's trying to be brave for us and it's really hard to be brave right now. So you hashing out your beef with him isn't helping. Hash it out some other time. He's trying to make up for it right now." I said, still using my soft voice. Robbie didn't reply for a while.

"Your dad didn't ever…" Robbie trailed off as we made eye contact in the rear view mirror.

"No, just a lot of yelling and calling me names. Nothing else." I confirmed. Robbie's shoulders relaxed some. I looked out at the setting sun as it began to rain. "Ray wouldn't have let me stay there if there was other things." I said silently, looking at Ray fondly. We sank back into comfortable silence. The only sound was the rain. Rachel eventually woke up as we came up to a small town. We suddenly saw began seeing people, all of them walking in the same direction that we were driving. I sat up; a little tense at the amount of people we were coming upon.

"Ray." Robbie tried to wake up his still sleeping father. "Ray." He said a little louder, but Ray continued to sleep. "Dad!" Robbie yelled. Ray instantly sat up. He somehow did that on purpose. "You think you could…" Robbie trailed off, but Ray understood.

"Don't stop. Don't take your foot off. Ok?" Ray said as Robbie and him changed drivers without stopping the car. "Ok. I got it." Ray settled into the drivers seat.

"Where is everybody going?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know, Rach." Ray answered, a bit of panic welling up in his voice as people started knocking on the windows and screaming at us.

"But we do, right?" Rachel asked, worrying in every inch of her voice. I wrapped my arms around her.

"Yeah, we do." Ray started honking at the people so that they would clear a path. A guy began to follow us, slamming his bag on the windshield in an attempt to break it. We all flinched.

"Why is he doing that?" Rachel asked as the man continued to beat on our window.

"He wants a ride, Rach. Everybody just wants a ride." Ray explained, luckily not snapping at Rachel for asking so many questions.

"Can we give him one?" Rachel continued to question. I shushed her quietly.

"Sit back and put on your seatbelt. All three of you put on your seatbelt." Ray instructed us. I quickly buckled myself, helping Rachel do the same. A guy jumped on the hood of the car, banging on the window to try and get us to stop. Ray and Robbie yelled at him to get off the hood. Rachel raised her arms up and began her breathing exercises. I gave her waist a squeeze to help assure her. Ray floored it so the man fell off. A guy threw a baseball at the window, making a small hole and shattering it.

"Shit!" I exclaimed as Rachel let out a high-pitched scream of fear. Ray began gassing it again as he tried to see through the now broken window. A woman holding a baby suddenly appeared in front of us.

"Look out!" Robbie spoke up. Ray swerved out of the way, causing us to hit a light post. People swarmed our now stopped van. A man came up with a baseball bat and shattered the glass all over me. Rachel and I screamed in unison. Arms reached through the window and began to drag me out, ripping me out of my seatbelt.

"Ray! Robbie!" I screamed loudly. I fought as hard as I could against my attackers, throwing elbows and fists where I could. They dropped me on the wet sidewalk, my hat falling off, as I got soaked from the rain. They had pulled Ray and Robbie out of the car too. Ray punched a guy, trying to pull people out of the van, but a guy came up behind him and busted a bat over his head. I ran over and clocked the guy across the face. He quickly grabbed my arms in response to stop me from fighting.

"Get in the car!" He yelled at someone. He was ripped off of me as Robbie came over and took him down. More people began to swarm. Arms were pulling me back, away from the car. I was elbowed in the cheekbone.

"Ray! Robbie!" I screamed out, but people were yelling too loud for me to be heard. Two shots being fired had everyone quiet down and stop moving.

"Get off the car! Get off!" I heard Ray yelling. "Where's my son? Robbie! Where's my other daughter? Kylie!" I shoved my way through people until I was back to the front. Ray grabbed my hand and pulled me toward Robbie. Robbie wrapped his arm around me. I looked to his face and saw a bloody nose, noticing he too had lost his hat in the brawl.

"Dad!" Rachel screamed. I looked back to Ray to see another guy holding a gun to Ray's head.

"Ok, man, now listen. Put down the gun. I'm taking the car." Ray mumbled something in response that couldn't be understood. "Put down the gun. I'm taking the car." The gunman repeated. "Put down the goddamn gun!" Ray quickly dropped the gun.

"All I want is my daughter. Please, just let me take my daughter." Ray asked, turning slowly for the car window.

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead, take her." Ray quickly reached inside the car and grabbed Rachel.

"Robbie, Kylie." Ray called us. Robbie and I ran over, still attached to each other. We watched the man drive off with our van. We followed Ray into a diner. I sat in the booth, scooting over for Robbie to have room to sit next to me. We sat there, catching our breath. I picked up a napkin, wiping off the blood form Robbie's face as the lights flickered overhead. Two gunshots sounded, causing Robbie to pull me down as we ducked out of view of the window. Once realizing that the shots weren't being fired at us, Robbie and I turned to see the new driver of the van getting shot. Two more shots were fired. Rachel ran over into Robbie's waiting arms. I wrapped my own arms around Robbie's back. He reached an arm behind him in response, wrapping as much of it around me as he could. The sound of sniffling made Robbie and I turn back around. We watched, stunned, as Ray started crying. Ray stared at the wall behind us, no doubt trying to decide our next move. I picked back up the napkin, going back to wiping the blood form Robbie's nose. He stared intently at me as I did. The way he was looking at me was a way that he had never looked at me before. I blushed as I finished, putting my head on his shoulder while we waited for Ray to decide our next move.


	6. Chapter 6

**This one's shorter, but just wanted to get something out there for you guys! The story doesn't have too much longer left! Just maybe 5 or 6 chapters.**

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We walked numbly toward the ferry. Robbie had his arm around my shoulder as he stood to my right. Rachel was on my left, holding my hand, and the both of us were sandwiched between the Ferrier men. What had started out as ran slowly turned to snow. I could hear idle chatter around us, people trying to theorize who had it the worst. Most theories contradicted other people's theories. I believed that they were everywhere on this planet and there was no place unscathed. As we neared the small town by the ferry, the crowd seemed to grow thicker.

"Looks like the power's still on here." Rachel commented. I shivered from the cold and my thin hoodie. Robbie wrapped his arm tighter around me in response.

"Yeah, power's still on, because nothing bad's come up from the ground." Ray commented. Suddenly the railroad crossing arms came down in front of us with the Army men pushing us back some. Ray stuck his arm out protectively in front of Robbie and I.

"Wha-" I started to say but was cut off by the sight of a speeding train on fire. I watched in horror with everyone else as it flew by. Both Ray's and Robbie's grips tightened on me. It finished going by almost as quickly as it had started. With his grip still tight, Ray began pulling us forward as we moved robotically toward the ferry. We neared the ferry, people were yelling out for everyone remain calm and not to rush. Suddenly a familiar voice hit my ears.

"Ray! Kylie! Ray!" We stopped moving and turned around. There, stunning my eyes was Sheryl and her daughter, Nora.

"Sheryl?" Ray asked in disbelief, giving the woman a hug as she barreled into him. Sheryl had always had somewhat of a crush on Ray. She quickly turned to me, giving me a hug as well.

"Yeah. Oh, my gosh, are these your kids?" Sheryl asked as she turned to look at Robbie and Rachel, finally letting me go from the hug. I turned to give Nora a quick hug as Ray introduced Rachel and Robbie to them. Sheryl in turn introduced Nora to everyone else. I didn't even notice Robbie was still holding my hand until I turned to look at the birds and his hand pulled some on mine. I watched the birds flying away from the ferry. The trees were glowing strangely. Robbie turned, looking at my face in concern as I studied the trees. As the trees began to move, my breathing picked up. Ray and Robbie finally turned around to look. We stood, frozen as we watched the tripod slowly moving toward us. It was standing on top of the hill now. As it crushed a tree, everyone finally turned around; all talking stopped. Robbie let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my shoulder as the tripod let out it's blaring horn noise. Ray grabbed my hand, pulling us along as we ran for the ferry with everyone else.

"Stay close! Just stay close to me!" Ray yelled at us, including Sheryl and Nora. We reached the ramp for the ferry, but there were a line of soldiers blocking us as we tried to push through. "Wait, wait, wait." The soldiers didn't listen as they yelled at us that there was no more room. "Just listen to me! There's four of us! Six! There's only six of us!" He bargained. "There is plenty of room! There's room for hundreds more!" Ray yelled at him. Ray turned to look at us. "Everybody, wait! Just stay with me." Ray adjusted his grip as he held Rachel and grabbed a fist full of my jacket. Robbie moved his grip from on top of my shoulder to right under my arm, grabbing a handful of my hoodie, just like Ray. I held on tight as Ray pulled us back some before coming in at a new angle to where the barricade was weak. We rushed through the army line, finally making it onto the ferry. We turned as we noticed that Sheryl and Nora were no longer with us. Ray yelled at the army to let them through, but I was distracted as Robbie moved his grip to my hand and began pulling me to the back of the boat. We stopped at the top of the stairs, watching as people hung from the ramp, trying to get on the boat. Robbie took off again, dragging me along behind him. He let go of my hand as we passed Ray and Rachel. We watched as Robbie climbed the ramp and began helping pull people over. Pride and affection swelled in my chest. I could tell that it did for Ray, too. The splash of water and bright light to our right made us turn to see a tripod rising from the water right beside the ferry. Ray resituated Rachel so that he was giving her a piggyback ride.

"Robbie!" I yelled. Robbie ran toward us, grabbing my hand as we jumped off the boat just as the tripod began tipping it over. The freezing cold water was a shock to the system. We broke the surface, only for a car to fall off the ferry and come straight for us. It ran into us, pushing us back under the water. We pushed off, swimming out of the way and back to the surface. We immediately began swimming for the opposite shore, glancing back to see the tripod growing tentacle like arms that were snatching people out of the water. I swam the hardest and longest that I ever had in my life. We stumbled as we crawled to the shore, panting and shivering from the cold.

"Don't stop. Don't stop." Ray panted as we climbed up a small hill. Robbie, Ray, and I collapsed on the top of the hill, laying down and panting for a few seconds. We leaned up, watching the water as two tripods searched the wreckage of the ferry, with two more moving in from behind. The snow had turned back to rain, causing me to shiver. We turned to the side at the noise of people screaming. People were fleeing down the hill from three more tripods. I saw Rachel moving out of the corner of my eye, fleeing backward in fear. Ray, Robbie, and I stumbled after her. Robbie grabbed me from behind, bringing me down to a crouched position behind some grass. His back shielded me from the flying dirt as a tripod stalked by. We jumped up a few seconds later, running away from them through the woods. I took Robbie's hand pausing when he did as we stared up at the falling clothes.

"Robbie, come on." I whispered, squeezing his hand. We turned, running to catch up with Ray and Rachel. As the clothes fell, I stopped, grabbing another jacket to put over my coat to help keep me warm. I noticed Ray stop to get a poncho for Rachel. The rain finally let up as we walked down the road. We didn't stop for rest as we kept walking, the beginnings of dawn was slowly approaching. The amount of people on the road was much smaller than before. I held Robbie's hand as we walked down the road. The sound of bombs going off up ahead made Robbie quicken his pace. The top of the hill was lighting up like fireworks as the army fought the tripods.

"Robbie, Kylie, slow down!" I heard Rachel say behind us. We both ignored her as we moved forward. They would need more help to fight these things. I was alone now, no family to grieve me. I felt an anger stir and my gut and grow as we began to move quicker toward it.

"Come on, Kylie, we gotta stay together. Robbie?" Ray questioned. I glanced at the army vehicles as they passed, the anger growing in my gut. I broke into a run with Robbie, still holding his hand. We turned the corner into the field that lead to the fighting, sprinting now to reach the top. The sound of jets overhead told me that things were getting serious here. We reached the top of the hill, only to be stopped by soldiers. They threw us to the ground to stop us. I jumped back up, slipping through their barricade easily. I watched in fascination as they fired on the tripod, only nothing seemed to be hitting it. It was like there was a shield around them. I watched as the helicopters flew overhead, firing at them as well. I suddenly realized that we couldn't win against them with the shields still up. The army wasn't fighting to try and stop them; they were trying to distract them so that the civilians could pass through unharmed. As the army moved forward I mindlessly followed them.

"Kylie!" I heard someone yell behind me. I turned, seeing Robbie running for me. I ran toward him as well, but suddenly, there was an explosion that lit up the entire hillside in fire.

"Robbie!" I screamed. I ducked to the ground, feeling the heat from the fire all around me. There was an automatic rifle a few inches from my face. I crawled over to it, grabbing it before standing back up. "Robbie!" I yelled, looking around the fire for him. I was grabbed from behind as someone began dragging me to the side, away from the fire. I struggled for a second before realizing that it was Robbie. We took each other's hand, running for our lives as the tripods went in the opposite direction from us. I'm not sure how long we ran, or where Ray and Rachel were, but we didn't stop until we were sure that we were safe. We plopped down beneath some trees, panting from exertion.

"Where…where…" I tried to get out but was too out of breath to continue. Robbie seemed to know what I was asking though.

"I don't…know." He panted back. I closed my eyes, saying a silent prayer that they were safe.

"Ok…Ray will keep Rachel safe." I said, finally catching my breath. "We just have to meet them now at your grandparent's." I felt Robbie nod from next to me. "Do you know how to get there?" Robbie nodded again.

"Rest. Let's rest first." Robbie answered. I nodded in agreeance, letting my head fall to his shoulder and my eyes flutter close.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry this update took so long! Promise the others will be sooner! Only 3-4 Chapters left.**

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I woke with a start, nightmares of what we had witnessed plaguing me. Robbie jolted awake as well, startled by my sudden movement.

"You okay?" Robbie grumbled, wiping his face groggily. I nodded as I looked around at our surroundings. We were in some type of Forest. The trees were spread out and bare of leaves from the winter. "You sure?"

"Ask me again once this is all over and I'll answer you truthfully," I responded. Robbie nodded reluctantly. "Where are we anyways?"

"Just a day's walk from Boston. That's if we don't rest a lot, or look for food." Robbie still leaned casually against the tree, eyes trained on the gun I had taken earlier.

"I would kill for a poptart right now," I mumbled. Robbie hummed in agreement. I opened my mouth to ask Robbie what he was thinking about, but the sound of the tripods horn spurred us into action. We jumped up, Robbie grabbing my hand and the gun with the other. We ran silently and quickly, easily able to see a tripod crushing the trees behind us. Lucky for us the tripod had yet to notice us, but it was getting closer. We panted, already running out of energy quickly in our run. It had been almost 36 hours since our last meal and I was beginning to feel it. Still, we pushed on, stumbling as we came to a small town. We ran to the side of a building as the sun began to set. We were stuck in an alley as the tripod began to roam the streets.

"What do we do?" I whispered desperately. Robbie just looked at me, completely lost.

"Pssst," We heard someone whisper. Our heads jerked down to the end of the alley. A guy was sticking his head out of a side door, motioning us in. I looked skeptically at Robbie, shaking my head no. The sound of tripods left us no choice but to run inside.

The doorway led us downstairs, a horrid stench growing stronger with each step. I could hear our unnamed rescuers heavy breathing in front of me, but couldn't see him. I couldn't see anything really, it was pitch black. I felt along the walls to give myself something to feel. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I could feel the airflow open up more, meaning a large room. I felt Robbie behind me breathing on my neck. What normally would have made me turn around to smack him now gave me comfort of another presence in this dark abyss. The smell was now overwhelming, making my eyes water as I drew my hoodie up over my nose. I felt the person in front of me grab my wrist, starting to pull me along. I quickly reached behind me, grabbing for any part of Robbie. I managed to grab a fist full of some clothing. Catching on, Robbie took my hand and let me lead him. We dared not talk as we could still just barely hear the tripods above us. The winding pathway made me feel utterly lost, but we could no longer hear any noises of the tripods. Finally we stopped. The sound of a door opening and sudden light made us blink. The unnamed man yanked us inside before quickly closing the door. The stench was at least lessened.

"What's this then, Frank?" A man asked. He was a short, white man with beady eyes that were always squinting so you couldn't see the color. I turned to Frank, our apparent rescuer. The man looked in his early 20's. He was black, of average height, and looked decidedly of average muscle tone. His most prominent feature was the scar across his right cheek.

"Found 'em running from the aliens. They look like fighters, don' they Phil?" Frank turned with Phil to eye us. Phil's eyes lingered on me longer than Robbie, making me uncomfortable.

"Oh, yes. They'll be great assets, so long as they share everything they have." For some reason Phil's statement made my skin crawl.

"Well, are you two gonna share?" A person I had previously overlooked stood up. The man was huge; broad shoulders, big muscles, at least 6'4", and a scowl that could scare Voldemort. I nodded in fear, despite the fact that I was sure Phil had a double meaning to what he said. "Good. My name's Mark. We can put your gun with the others." Robbie hesitantly handed it over.

"I bet you two are hungry, thirsty," Frank stated. In response Robbie's stomach made a gurgling noise. Chuckling, Frank motioned us over to a stock piled area. There were about a dozen cans sitting around. Frank opened us both a can of beans, passing them over with spoons. I have never loved canned peas so much in my life! We gobbled them greedily as Frank passed us each a bottled water.

"We're stocking up, looking for fighters as well as supplies to try and take those aliens down. The only way to get past the shields is for it to bring you past them. That's what we're gonna do. We're going to get caught, so we can kill them from the inside," Mark told us. I nearly spewed the water.

"You want us to get caught and killed by one of those things? What are you insane?" Robbie questioned. Mark's face grew dark at the insult. Frank passed me a can of Vienna sausages.

"Watch your mouth, boy. I oughta beat some respect into you. You're here, eating our supplies, and you think we ain,t gonna ask for something in return?" Mark growled as a slightly southern accent emerged. Robbie shied back a little. I paused in the middle of the bite of sausage. Oh, God. They aren't going to let us leave.

"You sure like sausage, girly," Phil commented in a way that made me know he wasn't talking about sausages at all. I quickly put them down as Robbie glared at him. Suddenly the thought of fighting the tripods was not appealing at all. I just wanted to be as far from them as possible.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding here. We're just kids. We'll find some food and water to replace what we took, but we aren't soldiers," I begged.

"Everyone's soldiers now," Frank told me. "We strike at dawn."

"How about a pre-fight ritual that soldiers use to do before they went off to a fight?" I looked at Frank in confusion. "Making love to their women." I felt Robbie draw me into his side as I looked at the men in fear. "Come on boy, you said you'd share."

"We share possessions, not her." Robbie argued firmly. Angry, Phil walked over, yanking me from Robbie's grasp and throwing me into Franks. I watched as Robbie punched Phil across the face, before Phil retaliated by punching Robbie hard in his side, knocking his breath out. Before either of them could continue, Mark stepped in, pulling the two apart and throwing Robbie against the opposite wall.

"Enough! Tonight she's yours boy but tomorrow after we take one down, you share." Mark took me from Frank's grasp, shoving me toward Robbie. I scrambled to his side as Frank lowered the lights down. Robbie winced as he moved to sit leaning against the wall.

"What are we going to do? We don't know the way out, we can't win in a fight against them. We're screwed," I whispered in his ear, panic lacing everything I said.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of you. We'll think of something," Robbie whispered back, wrapping his arm around my waist in comfort. How were we going to get through this?


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry this took so long. School caught up with me. I have hardly no free time. To make up for it I made this chapter longer.**

 **So thanks for the favorites and follows!**

 **I'm probably only going to do two more chapters of this story unless someone asks for more.**

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Robbie and I stood side-by-side, holding hands as we walked down the dark and smelly sewer tunnel. My right hand shook slightly as the flamethrower weighed down that side of my body.

"Alright, you all know the plan. Get captured by the tentacle thing it sends out and try to kill it from the cage. Take down as many as we can boys!" Mark's voice echoed in the tunnel. Frank and Phil whooped loudly in agreement. Robbie tightened his hold on me as Frank slowly opened the door.

"Stay close to me," Robbie whispered. I nodded; not even thinking about the fact that he probably still couldn't see me in the darkness. Phil gave us a shove from behind, pushing us out into the open. Two tripods were walking around, surveying the ground for humans. Phil slammed the door behind us as Frank and Mark started yelling.

"Oh, God," I whispered as the tripods turned their heads to us. As the tripods moved forward, Phil grabbed my jacket sleeve, yanking me forward and away from Robbie.

"No!" Robbie yelled, chasing after us as I struggled to get free. Phil finally stopped, dropping my arm so he could open fire on the tripod, but the bullets stopped before they could even hit it. As it reached closer to us I felt a metallic arm tighten around my waist. I couldn't help the scream I let out as I was lifted into the air. Robbie opened fire on the tripod, but it was just as ineffective as Phil's was. Robbie was cut off from my view, as I was set inside a metal cage basket filled with other people.

"You ok?" An older man asked me. I looked around at the inescapable cage that stood at least 3 or 4 stories off the ground. I shook my head no. He nodded in agreement. I shuffled the flamethrower so that it was situated between my legs. Without warning, a smaller tentacle came out from inside the tripod, wrapping around my legs and the flamethrower. It yanked me up as I began screaming, pulling me toward the opening. The older man grabbed my hand, pulling me as he attempted to save me. I glanced toward my feet, which were now disappearing into the tripod, but so was the tip of the flamethrower. Fuck, I'm not going down without a fight. I pulled the trigger with my free hand as I continued to be pulled inside, knee deep now. I could feel the hot metal of the thrower through my sneakers. What started out as uncomfortable heat was turning into searing pain. I let out a scream as I continued to pull the trigger, but it seemed that the older man was now joined with some other people in the cage and they were pulling me free. I felt the tentacle release me as I fell back into the cage. I quickly released the trigger. The rubber on my sneakers was melted and the bottom of my pants was on fire. The older man quickly used his jacket to smother the flames. As my pants smoked, we both looked at each other, shocked as the tripod began to groan and fall to the ground. As we collided with the ground, my world went temporarily black. I could barely make out the screaming around me as I tried to open my eyes. The faint smacking to my face woke me up.

"Kelsi!" Robbie yelled at me. I blinked a few times, bringing the world into focus around me. The older man that had helped me now lay motionless beside me, a spear going straight through his heart. "Kelsi, come on. We have to go," Robbie pulled me up, grabbing my hand to drag me out. When I tried to move my feet though, my sneakers wouldn't budge. I looked down to see that the rubber on my sneakers had cooled down and were now attached to the metal of the cage. I numbly tried to move my feet, not fully comprehending yet that I needed to abandon the shoes. Robbie, however, did. He quickly ripped me out of my shoes, scooping me up as we ran off. I could see the tripod on the ground now, other people running from it in fear. The second tripod moved over to investigate what had happened. The cold air nipped at my sock covered feet as Robbie continued to run with me. The tripods were lost from view as we made in into a small town. Robbie stopped, setting me down on the cold ground as he busted open a shop door. I stared at the shop, my cloudy head starting to clear as the cold air nipped at my body. Robbie dragged me inside the store full of clothes and dragged me to the shoes. "What's your shoe size?" I blinked a few times. Before I could answer, he walked off. I looked over the shoes, stopping in front of a pair of hiking boots. I had always wanted a pair of these. I searched until I came on an 8.5 size. I pulled out the box as Robbie came back, a bandana in hand.

"Found some," I waved the shoes at him. He nodded, moving me to sit down. As I put on the shoes, Robbie started to roll the bandana. After rolling it up, he moved forward, tying it around my forehead. I winced as he tightened the knot.

"That should stop the bleeding and hopefully keep it clean," Robbie nodded to himself as I finished up putting on my shoes. I had a head wound? His breath washed over my face as he looked at me intently. I felt my breath catch in my throat. "We're only a half a day's walk to my grandparent's. We should go." I nodded, standing as we headed to the door. Robbie and I walked hand in hand; looking everyway we could as we ran off in the direction of what we prayed was safety.

We had been walking for hours. I was tired, hungry, and in desperate need of a bath. I had a slight headache from my fall, but nothing that was concerning. We walked slowly down the street, nearing ever closer to our destination.

"That's the house," Robbie pointed at the house that sat directly in the center at the end of the street. We continued forward, slowly walking up the steps. I could feel Robbie's hand shaking in mine as he lifted it to knock on the door. We waited for a minute or two. "They're gone."

"No. You just have to knock louder," I insisted, not giving up hope yet. I banged my fist on the door loudly. After another minute of no one showing up, Robbie let out a shaky breath.

"Where do we go now?" He asked. They had to be here. Ray said he was coming here and he would have waited for us before leaving if the grandparents were gone. I began banging my fist on the door again, this time not stopping.

"We know that you're in there. We're not leaving till you let us in. We'll break down your door eventually," I yelled. Robbie started to shush me, but the door swung open. A very disgruntled and angry old man came to the door. The old guy must have just stayed in his house the whole time, because he and his clothes were still clean. He looked me over in something akin to disgust, but then his eyes fell on Robbie and they softened.

"Robbie?" The old man asked, his voice holding hope, relief, and disbelief all at once.

"Grandpa," Robbie breathed out, moving to the old man and giving him a long hug. I stood to the side awkwardly.

"Come on. Get inside. It's not safe out there," the old man quickly ushered the two of us in. There house wasn't as large as Robbie's had been, but it was equally as nice. We stood in the foyer area as an older woman came in. She saw me first, looking at me a little in disgust before she saw Robbie, rushing to him as she cried tears of joy.

"Marry! Tim! It's Robbie! He found us!" She sobbed in joy. Robbie hugged her back fiercely. A still very pregnant Marry hobbled quickly into the room with Tim right behind her. The old woman finally released Robbie so that he could hug his mother. Marry, too was crying, but her tears were much more silent. She let go so that Tim could give him a quick hug as well. Marry walked over to me, smiling with tears in her eyes as she cupped my face.

"I'm so glad your ok, Kelsi. Thank you for bringing him here," Marry told me. I returned the smile as she dropped her hand. Marry looked around the foyer in confusion. "Where's Rachel?" I shared a panicked glance with Robbie.

"Rachel and Dad aren't here yet?" Robbie asked, looking at each person in turn. The adults all looked at us in confusion.

"Why would they be with us? They were with you two," Tim replied. Robbie turned to me, guilt showing in his eyes.

"We got separated from them two days ago, but we were only about a day's walk away. We got held up, but they should be here now," Robbie answered. There was a pregnant pause.

"They probably just got sidetracked. Decided to hide out in a house or something for a day to rest," I tried to sooth. No one spoke of the other option. Another pregnant pause filled the air.

"You two must be hungry and tired. Let's get you some food before we send you to bed," Marry spoke up, putting a hand on my back to guide me to the kitchen. I sat down next to Robbie and watched as Marry flitted nervously around the kitchen to make us a sandwich. We quickly guzzled down a glass of water that we were handed.

"What happened out there?" Tim asked us. Robbie and I looked at each other. I nodded for him to go ahead. This was his family after all.

"A few hour's after you dropped us off, Kelsi and I were driving when the lightening happened. The –" Robbie was interrupted.

"It was just you and Kelsi in the car?" The old man asked. Robbie and I looked at each other in confusion as we nodded. "Ray let you take the car out without a license, and let you pick up a girl?" Shit. I forgot about that. Robbie and I looked at each other sheepishly for a second.

"No. He didn't let us go," Robbie answered slowly, like he was waiting for someone to jump down his throat.

"If he didn't let you go, then how did you end up driving it?" Tim asked in a very stern voice. Robbie chose not to answer and instead looked down at the placemat in front of him, playing with it. After a few seconds of awkward silence, I couldn't take it any more.

"…So after the lightening hit, the car wouldn't start, so we walked back to Ray's. Ray went to investigate. He was gone for maybe 30 minutes top," I explained.

"He came back covered in all this white powdered stuff and completely freaked out. He grabbed us and Kelsi, went to the garage across the street, stole a van and took off right as the tripod got there and started blowing up shi-stuff," Robbie explained, back tracking from his curse word as Marry sent him a look. Marry set down the food in front of us. We quickly began stuffing our faces, talking around mouthfuls.

"We drove the van through the rest of the day and into the night. Once we were going through a small back town, a mob of people literally ripped us out of the van. We walked for a while on foot. Took a ferry across the Hudson. It was a little while after that that we got separated," Robbie told them, a few bits of food spitting out as he tried to talk.

"We walked for a while, taking shelter one night in a sewer and ran here the next morning," I told them as I took my last bite of food. Robbie and I exchanged glances, both deciding that we would omit some of the more gory details. The adults seemed to know that we did as the room went silent. I thought back to the dust that Robbie had said was on Ray. "I bet that dust was from Ray running through a cloud of vaporized people," I told Robbie. He thought it over before nodding. I heard old lady take in a gasp.

"Let's let these two rest. Kelsi, you can take Robbie and Rachel's room. Robbie will sleep in mine and Marry's room," Tim instructed. I nodded, getting up and following him upstairs. The room had two twin beds, one with blue covers and one with pink. There wasn't much else in the room aside from a few of Rachel's toys. I sat on the edge of the blue bed, staring blankly at the wall. The image of the old man that helped me from before appeared in my head, his dead corps forcing me to keep my eyes open. I jerked my head toward the door as it opened. I watched Robbie as he quietly shut the door behind him and came and sat on the bed next to me. We sat in silence for a few seconds.

"We never should have left them," Robbie spoke in a dull voice, looking at the same spot on the wall that I had been looking at.

"There's no way to have known what was going to happen. And for all we know, they're fine. Just try not to think about it," I told him. Robbie nodded dully. After a few seconds he turned to look at me. He slowly untied the bandana that was around my head. His fingers lightly brushed my now scabbed over forehead. We winced in unison.

"I thought you were dead," Robbie confessed as he still stared at my head wound. His eyes fell to my own. "I was so scared for you when you were ripped out of the car. I've never been so mad in my life when I saw that guy hit you." My breathing came in quicker as Robbie's finger's ghosted along my chin. His eyes fell to my lips, making me lip them subconsciously. I couldn't even think straight enough to respond. The next thing I knew, his lips were on mine. Both of our lips were chapped from dehydration, but his still felt soft and perfect on mine. I had never kissed anyone before. I moved my lips hesitantly, gaining confidence as his breaths came in shorter and his hand moved to the back of my head. My stomach was doing flip-flops and I couldn't think straight as my own breaths became labored. We parted after a second, staring at each other.

"Stay with me?" I asked. Robbie gave me his cocky smirk, nodding at me as he looked at me with a stare that melted my insides. We lay on the bed, staring into each other's eyes as we fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for the hiatus. I had an intense year as I tried to finish up my bachelor's degree. Good news is I finished and I now have more free time than I know what to do with. Bad news is, this is the last chapter for this story. Hope y'all liked it. It is one of the first FF that I have written/published so all reviews and feed back have been super helpful. Be sure to check out some of my other stories!**

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I woke groggily from my slumber to someone yelling. It took me a second to process what was being yelled.

"Kelsi! Robbie! Ray and Rachel are outside!" Robbie's grandfather yelled up to us. I jumped up from Robbie's arms, shaking him awake quickly. Robbie sat bolt upright.

"Ray and Rachel are here," I said excitedly as I pulled his arm downstairs. He soon passed me on the stairs. I let go of his arms as he ran outside. I stood on the porch with Tim, and the grandparents as I smiled, watching each parent embrace the missing children. Ray made eye contact with me. He gave me a small smile, motioning for me to come out and see him. I jogged quickly to his side, hugging the man tightly as I let out a quiet sob of relief. I hadn't realized how worried I was for him until the relief settled over me when he finally arrived.

"Let's get inside," Ray said, shuffling Robbie and I to his sides as we walked to the door. I noticed that just like me, Robbie was clinging to Ray. Marry and Rachel walked inside in front of us. Tim closed the door behind us as we led Ray into the living room. We plopped down on the couch as Rachel clung to her mother. "You two look awful." I chuckled as I laid my head on Ray's shoulder. "They're dying."

"What?" Robbie asked as we all stared at Ray intently.

"The tripods, they're dying. Their shields are going down so we're able to hit them with weapons and bring them down," Ray told us.

"Why are their shields going down, though?" Grandpa asked. We stayed silent as we thought through answers.

"What if it's like when the conquistadors came over to America and brought the smallpox blankets to them. They just aren't used to our diseases and it's making them sick," Tim thought out loud. My eyebrows rose at the thought. It made sense.

"Does this mean there will be some semblance of government again? That they will ration out food?" Grandma asked. No one answered. I guess only time would tell.

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I sat with my legs pulled up to my chest on the back porch, watching the clear night sky as I sat in thought. I was startled out of it as Ray plopped down in a seat next to me.

"You're supposed to be in bed," Ray commented, looking up at the sky as well.

"I could say the same thing about you," I responded. Ray grunted as he scratched his dirty, unshaven face.

"You can stay. You don't have to leave us," Ray spoke up after a few minutes of silence. I turned to look at the man in surprise. "I know what you've been thinking. You don't have to leave all of us now that we've found Marry and her family. You're welcome to stay here with us until you decide to leave. Hopefully by that time though it will be to live on your own with some resemblance of the world back."

"You can't offer me a permanent place to stay here, Ray. This isn't exactly your house," I responded.

"No, but Robbie and Rachel want you to stay. Marry and Tim, too. We out number the old people if they try to kick you out. Paul wouldn't try to kick you out, but Nina…well, Nina's another story," Ray winced as he was no doubt thinking about Robbie's grandmother. I had heard my fair share of horror stories about Nina, but I had yet to see he actually act that way. "For now, let's not worry about if they're going to kick you out until they actually try to." I hummed in agreement. "Come on, I'll walk you upstairs to your room." I begrudgingly followed Ray up to the room that Robbie, Rachel, and I were now sharing. I opened the door, starting to head for Robbie's bed, when Ray pulled on my jacket sleeve. "Rachel's bed," Ray ordered. I sent him a smirk, kicking off my shoes as I crawled in bed with Rachel. Rachel was out hard, not even waking as I got comfortable. I glanced over at Robbie, who was staring right back at me. He sent me the smirk that always melted my insides. I couldn't help but smile back as I closed my eyes to sleep.

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I woke up the next day to the sound of chatter below. Rachel was gone from the bed, but Robbie was still sprawled out on his bed. The light from the window let me know that it was morning. I quickly rose from bed and moved over to Robbie's. I snuggled into his side and smiled at his sleeping form. I kissed down his jawline to his neck as I tried to wake him. I could hear his breathing coming in a little faster as he hugged me closer to him.

"Time to get up," I murmured as I gave his jaw another kiss. Robbie groaned, rolling on his side so that I was captured. I giggled as Robbie buried his face into the side of my neck. "They're going to be waiting for us." Robbie lifted his head making our noses touch. He smiled as he leaned in, bringing his lips to mine. Our lips had barely begun to move when the door swung open. We broke the kiss, turning to see Rachel as she rolled her eyes.

"Breakfast is ready. They want use down stairs." Rachel stayed planted in her spot, tapping her foot as she waited to make sure we were actually going to move. Robbie rolled his eyes exactly how Rachel had just moments before. We both slowly stood up, following her as we made our way down the stairs. Cereal sat on the table along with water bottles. I ignored the chatter as I began eating the stale cereal. Ray's voice drew me from my sleep addled thoughts.

"I went out this morning, talked to some military people. The aliens are dying all over the planet. There's a food distribution area that is being set up about 10 blocks away. Robbie, Kelsi, and I should go there once they finish eating. We can get more food for everyone," Ray told us.

"Are you sure it's safe enough for Robbie and Kelsi to go? Maybe it would be best if you went on your own," Nina offered. Ray let out a breath as he turned to look at a worried Marry.

"I can't carry the boxes by myself. Robbie and Kelsi aren't kids anymore. They've been out there, hell they were on their own out there. They know how to take care of themselves," Ray defended us. Robbie swelled with pride at his father's words, visibly sitting taller in his chair. Marry nodded in agreement, though she looked at the two of us in worry. I smiled fondly at Marry, grateful for her motherly worry. Robbie, Ray and I got up, walking to the door. Tim followed.

"I'd like to come," he told Ray.

"We should take turns. Make sure at least one of the four of us is here at the house at all times. Just to make sure looters don't try to break in," Robbie suggested. Tim looked at him in surprise while Ray's lip twitched in amusement and pride.

"Sounds good to me," I added, slipping on my shoes. Tim nodded in agreement, shutting the door behind us as we walked outside. Robbie took my hand as we walked behind Ray. I smiled somehow pleased with how this strange new life was beginning to turn out. Ray glanced over his shoulders, shaking his head with a smile when he saw the two of us holding hands. Robbie flipped him off with a smile, only making Ray's smile bigger. Yeah, this life was looking up.

 **THE END**


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